]]>https://healthybastard.wordpress.com/2012/03/02/monday-morning-wake-up-everest/feed/0steventjonesUsing goals and teamwork to train harderhttps://healthybastard.wordpress.com/2012/02/26/using-goals-and-teamwork-to-train-harder/
https://healthybastard.wordpress.com/2012/02/26/using-goals-and-teamwork-to-train-harder/#respondMon, 27 Feb 2012 04:30:53 +0000http://healthybastard.wordpress.com/?p=128Today I registered for my community’s 10k run, the Times Colonist 10k, which has been running for a few decades now. I have never run a formal 10k before. There will be bibs. There will be tracking chips with space-age technology. There will be elbows, and masses of my fellow humans getting in my way. It’s going to be awesome, but also a little intimidating.

Why register for a 10k run? Why pay hard-earned dollars to go suffer for an hour with over ten thousand of my closest neighbours? Well, as I have said before, all the training we do needs to mean something. Simple fitness is a fine goal, but achievement is something different. Achievements and goals push you harder.

But that’s not the only reason this 10k is pushing me; several of my classmates at school have also committed to run this 10k, and because I somehow organized this is a team activity, that makes me team captain. Now instead of this run being about me, and thus entirely subject to my convenience, motivation and schedule, it’s about them. So, I’m running as much because I don’t want to let them down as I am for myself. Suddenly, it’s all about the team, not the bastard.

Teamwork ups the stakes, but also the rewards, too. After the race, we’ll head out for some breakfast. And that night, there’s talk of time out at the pub, celebrating our success. And somewhere along the way, there will be stories about it, as well.

The race is just the culmination of the process; before we get there, we’ll motivate each other to train, trade information, and we’ll end up in a better place together.

So will I slack off before the race? Maybe a bit, here and there. But I’ve committed. I’ve got skin in the game, financially and socially. I’ll run that 10k as fast as I can manage, and I’ll do it knowing that I’ve got a team at my back.

]]>https://healthybastard.wordpress.com/2012/02/26/using-goals-and-teamwork-to-train-harder/feed/0steventjonesA banner week around Chez Bastardhttps://healthybastard.wordpress.com/2012/02/26/a-banner-week-around-chez-bastard/
https://healthybastard.wordpress.com/2012/02/26/a-banner-week-around-chez-bastard/#respondSun, 26 Feb 2012 18:00:51 +0000http://healthybastard.wordpress.com/?p=117I had a great week this week. Among the highlights:

Did three sessions in the weight room

Deadlifted 176 lbs, a new PR

Benched 123 lbs, a new PR

Ran 3 8ks, despite foul weather, fatigue, and general grumpiness.

Altogether, a successful week for me. The strange thing is that when I first started running and going to the gym, I had to talk myself into getting there. I’d have this mental dialogue with myself and it went as follows:

“Brain?”
“Yes, body?”
“We took a vote down here, and we think this whole running thing and gym time is bullshit. We’d rather sit around eat cake.”
“Now listen, you guys aren’t in charge. I’m the brain. I’m in charge. I say we go out for a run.”
“Lefty says that’d be a bad idea.”
“Who’s lefty?”
“You know, lefty — the left leg.”
“Why would it be a bad idea?”
“Lefty says he’s a bit sore, and that maybe putting him up on a pillow would be nice. He also thinks we should have pie, not cake.”
“Lefty is fine. We’re all fine. Now quit bellyaching and get moving, you idiots are too lazy and nobody’s paying you to eat cake.”
“But — ”
“If we don’t work out, we’re going vegan. No pie, no cake, no bacon.”
“…fine.”

Nowadays, things are different. Twice, I’ve gone through the mental conversation, and have really just been telling myself that maybe today is the day to slow down, and take a break, and maybe I don’t really need to go hit the gym or go for a run. Here’s the weird part: both times, while having this conversation, I was walking to the gym, or getting my running gear on. Both times, despite thinking it’d be not a horrible idea to not run, my body wouldn’t have it: the habit kicked in, and I still hit the gym, or went for the run.

It’s fun reaching the point where working out is easier than staying in. I don’t know if it’ll last, but for now, I love it.

]]>https://healthybastard.wordpress.com/2012/02/26/a-banner-week-around-chez-bastard/feed/0steventjonesMonday Morning Wake-Up: Training for Tomorrow’s Storyhttps://healthybastard.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/monday-morning-wake-up-training-for-tomorrows-story/
https://healthybastard.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/monday-morning-wake-up-training-for-tomorrows-story/#respondMon, 20 Feb 2012 14:00:10 +0000http://healthybastard.wordpress.com/?p=108This is another reason we train, and also why we go to work. Welcome to monday morning.

]]>https://healthybastard.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/monday-morning-wake-up-training-for-tomorrows-story/feed/0steventjonesKeeping fitness interesting: milestones and new challengeshttps://healthybastard.wordpress.com/2012/02/17/keeping-fitness-interesting-milestones-and-new-challenges/
https://healthybastard.wordpress.com/2012/02/17/keeping-fitness-interesting-milestones-and-new-challenges/#respondFri, 17 Feb 2012 23:39:33 +0000http://healthybastard.wordpress.com/?p=107This was a week of progression and change for me, exercise-wise. Each one of these milestones is just a small step towards the larger goal of becoming the healthiest bastard around. But to reach that goal, I need to keep it interesting and vibrant; that’s where milestones and new exercises come on.

I hit my first milestone hit on Tuesday, where I managed an 8k run. I’m super proud of it because it’s another distance milestone for me, and a long way off from that 1km run I had to walk after, back in November. All these weeks of running, pushing through the tiredness, and just going, no matter how cranky it makes me feel are slowly paying off. Check out the run right here.

Finally I managed 30 minutes of jogging on the treadmill in the Vibrams yesterday, as cooldown for the workout and as a big part of my ongoing efforts to train my feet towards minimalist running…though I intend to do it slowly. Very slowly.

Each of these changes are what makes the process of fitness fun, and not a boring punishment: I’m either hitting a goal I had my eye on before, like the running distance milestone, or the vibram times, or I’m trying to master a new skill, like single-leg side planks. By shifting my focus from trying to achieve specific actions, rather than just doing the same thing, over and over, I keep my brain engaged and keep the mind ready to keep going. It’s not a bad way to train, I have to say.

This will be a quiet weekend of exercise for me, as I’m heading out to a cabin in the woods for a stag party. I’m sure there’ll be hiking, and maybe some disc golf, but exercise-wise, it’s going to be a long two days until Monday. But I’m looking forward to Monday already.

]]>https://healthybastard.wordpress.com/2012/02/17/keeping-fitness-interesting-milestones-and-new-challenges/feed/0steventjonesLate night awesome: Jeb Corlisshttps://healthybastard.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/late-night-awesome-jeb-corliss/
https://healthybastard.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/late-night-awesome-jeb-corliss/#respondTue, 14 Feb 2012 07:45:10 +0000http://healthybastard.wordpress.com/?p=102
]]>https://healthybastard.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/late-night-awesome-jeb-corliss/feed/0steventjonesHealthy Bastard’s Road to Fitness Part 3: Tracking & Numbershttps://healthybastard.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/healthy-bastards-road-to-fitness-part-3-tracking-numbers/
https://healthybastard.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/healthy-bastards-road-to-fitness-part-3-tracking-numbers/#respondMon, 13 Feb 2012 17:47:34 +0000http://healthybastard.wordpress.com/?p=23How do you know where you’re going if you don’t know where you are? While this seems like a simple question, it’s amazing how many people start out on a fitness regimen without a clear idea of how they’re going to track their body changes. For most people, they are going to rely upon nothing more than the number they get when they stand on a scale: body-weight. Worst number for fitness tracking ever.

The reason your weight is a bad number to track is because it fluctuates according a lot of variables; your fat stores, your muscle content, how much water you retain (which is, in turn, affected by factors like salt in your diet), hormone levels, and so on. People end up freaking out and losing hope because after three weeks of steady downward numbers on the scale, they’re faced with a three to five pound uptick. They instantly feel like all their work has been wiped out, and start to wonder why they’re wasting their time. Of course, they’re not wasting their time at all. The uptick was progress, but they didn’t recognize it. So what’s the solution? That’s pretty easy, measure your fitness, not your fatness.

When I started losing weight a few months ago, I wanted to have something concrete beyond the scale to work with. I knew that, in the past, relying solely upon the scale to track your fitness just doesn’t work. Losing weight can be bad, because you can be losing muscle, not fat. Similarly, gaining weight can be good, because you can gain muscle at the expense of fat. ‘ve heard more than a few people say that what they find frustrating about running is that they decide to be a runner. So they go out, they run a few times a week, but the instant they miss a day, they feel like a failure. The problem is not that they “failed,” per se, it’s that they didn’t do three things: benchmark themselves, set goals, and measure progress. So how do you do that, exactly? And what other things can you track that will give you a real idea of what your body is actually doing?

Step 1: Benchmark yourself

Let’s say you want to lose weight and get fit by running. Well, the first thing you can do requires only a map or a computer (which you probably have, if you’re reading this), and a watch.

The first thing you want to establish is where you’re at: this will be helpful later on. So you start off by figuring out a distance you want to run, and then determine how long it takes you to do it. So if you map out a 5k running route in your neighbourhood (using, for example, www.mapmyrun.com), you’ll then go out and run the route. Don’t worry about running the whole thing; simply get out there, walk 5 mins to warm up, and jog until you need to stop. Don’t overdo it; just do it until you feel like it’s too tough, then go back to walking. Walk until you’ve cooled down, and give it a run again. Repeat this process until you’ve finished the run. Now when you’ve finished the run, at the end of 5k, write the time down of when you’ve finished.

The time it took you from start to finish, regardless of how much walking you did, is your benchmark. Let’s say it was 45mins, 31 seconds, start to finish. That’s your benchmark. Now you know where you are.

Step 2: Set some goals

Now you need to figure out where you’re going. If it took you 45 mins and 31 seconds to run 5k, you can get a couple figures from that:

So based on those figures, it’s easy to establish a couple goals. Let’s establish some goals just based on those numbers:

Major Goal: 5k Run-time of 30:00mins

Major Goal: Average pace of 6:00min/km

Major Goal: Average speed of 10km/h

Now we set a milestone date for when we want to achieve those goals:

Milestone: 12 weeks from start

What does that allow us to do? It gives us a 12-week timeline to achieve those goals,and it lets us break those goals into manageable chunks. In order to meet those goals, we’d need to see changes of each figure, as follows, in each of the weeks of our 12-week timeline.

Weekly Goal: Total time decrease: 1min, 17s.

Weekly Goal: Pace increase: +0:16min/km

Weekly Goal: Speed increase: +.29km/h

So a big jump in overall performance becomes, let’s face it, not a huge jump over 12 weeks, at least when you’re starting out. I mean, chances are, you can improve on last week’s time by just over a minute, right? You’d just have to push a bit harder for a bit longer. That might just end up being running for 20s longer before you walk, six times throughout a run. That’s not bad at all!

All that being said, I wouldn’t worry too much about these sort of numbers, unless you’re a data hound like me. Setting major goal and a timeline to achieve that goal is probably enough.

Step 3: Measure your progress

So now that you have your benchmark and your goals, all you need to do is keep up the exercise and record your progress. Do this for every workout session, even if it’s just your start time and end time, as having this data collected somewhere will allow you to compare the time it takes you to run the same distance over time.

Next, mark some dates on your calendar: in the example above, the end of week 3 (25% of goal), week 6 (50% of goal), week 9 (75% of goal), and week 12 (100% of goal). These are your progress dates. On these days, you look at your data closely and see how you’re progressing. You may be overperforming, and meeting your goals much sooner than expected. You might be underperforming, and meeting your goals may be unrealistic. In either case, it is important to adapt your plan.

If you’re on track or exceeding your goals, seeing your progress can be a boost. If you’re behind on your goals, seeing your progress can be a bummer. What many people fail to do at this point is adapt: if you’re overperforming, you may need to change your goals to keep yourself challenged (safely! don’t injure yourself). If you’re underperforming, you may need to extend your plan over a longer period, or you may need to change your approach to increase your challenge.

By using your data, and adjusting to what the data tells you, you’ll be able to measure your progress, predict performance, and make adjustments. And if you are flexible with goals, you can build a resilient plan; one that takes into account unexpected events and things you can’t control (remember, the Progression Principle applies). Suddenly, you’ll begin to be able to see your progress as it happens. It won’t be theoretical. There’s no greater feeling that doing the same old run, feeling discouraged, and then reviewing your data and discovering you actually ran the same distance two minutes faster than last time, even though it felt exactly the same! Your brain is not necessarily accurate in its estimations, so when in doubt, turn to science!

This sort of setup may seem obvious, especially if you have a history as an athlete. But if that’s not your background, it might be new to you. If so, that’s awesome! You’ve learned a new skill! Congrats!

Common pieces of data you can use to track your fitness besides your weight:

Data Type

Data

Cardio

Total Distance

Cardio

KM/H

Cardio

Max Heart Rate*

Strength

Max bench press*

Strength

Max squat*

Strength

Max deadlift*

Endurance

Average heart rate

Endurance

Heart Rate Recovery

Endurance

Total Time

Body Weight

Hip circumference

Body Weight

Waist circumference

Body Weight

Body Fat %

*Use these measures with caution if you’re out of shape or inexperienced. Get somebody who is fit — like a personal trainer or a knowledgable friend — to help you establish these. It’s easy to injure yourself otherwise.

In another post, I’ll talk about some of the gear and tools I use to track different data. You’d be surprised at just how many options there are, and just how much data you can gather about yourself in a short amount of time!

Thanks for reading, and stay healthy.

Steven/HB

]]>https://healthybastard.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/healthy-bastards-road-to-fitness-part-3-tracking-numbers/feed/0steventjonesRunning DistanceMonday Morning Wake-uphttps://healthybastard.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/monday-morning-wake-up/
https://healthybastard.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/monday-morning-wake-up/#respondMon, 13 Feb 2012 15:15:41 +0000http://healthybastard.wordpress.com/?p=94Welcome to Monday. I’m sure we’d all rather be doing this, rather than go to work or school. This is what we work so hard for: